Activity:
Drawing monsters is fun for children as there is no predisposed idea
of what a monster looks like. There are many books that tell stories
of children’s monsters, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild
Things Are, Mercer Mayer’s There’s a Nightmare in My
Closet and others. Process: Drawing the Valentine Monster is a special
activity for Valentine’s day. It counteracts the extremes and
provides a female anti-hero. First read the following story to the
children. Then discuss the possibilities of what the monster looks
like reassuring the children that no two monsters will look the same
so each child can freely invent his or her monster details. Does
the monster have claws, or wings, or teeth, or fur, or scales or
a tail? Does he or she walk or slither or fly? To draw their picture
instruct the children they must first draw the monster in oil pastel
using whatever colors they like, then they should use the brushes
and wash to fill the page with diluted red paint for a complete composition.
The oil pastels will not smear with the watery red paint. They will
resist and provide a bright contrast to the red wash.

Story
Once upon a time there was a little girl who was tired of all the nice,
sweet, happy hearts that came out on Valentines Day. She thought
all this was very silly, and she was tired of being nice and sweet
and happy all the time. She didn’t want to make hearts that
said, “I love you” and she didn’t want silly boys
giving her hearts that said, “I love you.” So she set
out to find a monster who would be the Valentine Monster and eat
all the happy red hearts up. She went to the forest where she knew
that there were many monsters because her brother had told night
time stories about the monsters in the forest. But she wasn’t
afraid because she knew there was one thing all monsters liked to
eat. Can you guess what that is? Anyway she filled her pockets with
it and whenever she met a monster in the forest she held out her
hand full of this wonderful food and the monsters grew very tame
and would listen to her while she asked them if they would like to
be the Valentine Monster. Most monsters, however, are very lazy and
afraid of the daylight. They don’t like to leave the forest.
So they all said, “No!”

Then one day when she was walking through the forest with her pockets
full of the magic food, she came upon a monster who was curled up
in a tree asleep. His big claws were covering his eyes and his hairy
legs were tucked up under his chin. He had funny looking ears, and
his nose wiggled. He had some sort of tail too, but the little girl
couldn’t see very well cause it was dark and the monster was
asleep. But she thought he also looked somewhat like a dragon too
cause he had scales. He was sort of a medium size monster so she
thought he might like the job of being the Valentine Monster. So
she woke him up.

“Grrrrrr,” said the monster, “who’s waking
me up before February 14th?”

“Do you always sleep until February 14th?” asked the
little girl.

“Grrrrr” said the monster, “February 14th is the
only day I wake up all year because that’s the only day I get
really, really hungry and have to hunt for my food which is a big
bother. Chasing rabbits, and catching birds and digging up roots,
is a lot of work. I would much rather sleep.”

“Oh,” said the little girl, “I have a much better
idea. How would you like to eat hearts? Nice yummy red hearts with
little arrows through them and flowers on them that say, “I
love you”. You wouldn’t have to hunt them at all because
all the kids leave them out on the table. They are all just waiting
for you to gobble up.”

“Well,” said the hairy scaly monster, “I would
like to eat hearts that I didn’t have to chase. The only thing
I would like better is some of that magic food you have in your pocket.” So
the little girl gave him a big handful of the yummy food and they
became friends. Monster promised to be the Valentine Monster and
eat up all the hearts he could find on Valentine’s Day.

And that is how the Valentine Monster became the Valentine Monster
who only comes once a year on February 14th and gobbles up all the
hearts that kids have cut out. . . unless the kids leave some of
that magic food in a bowl outside the kitchen door. Then the Valentine
Monster will fill up on the magic food and be too full to bother
with your Valentines.

Can you guess what the magic food you have to leave outside your
door is?

(answer is: dog food)

Draw the Valentine Monster:
Think about whether he has scales, or fur or
feathers. Will you draw him with long claws or flippers?
Will he have a beak or long teeth? Does he have a tail? Does he
walk on two legs or four or six legs?